docs: def _remove_overlapped_date_str(self, results: List[List[dict]]) -> List[Extraction]:
          """
          some string may be matched by multiple date templates,
          deduplicate the results and return a single list
  
          """
          res = []
          all_results = []
          for x in results:
              all_results = all_results + x
          if not all_results or len(all_results) == 0:
              return list()
          all_results.sort(key=lambda k: k['start'])
          cur_max = None
          i = 0
          while i < len(all_results) and not cur_max:
              if self._post_check(all_results[i]):
                  cur_max = all_results[i]
              i += 1
  
          if not cur_max:
              return res
  
          while i < len(all_results):
              x = all_results[i]
              i += 1
              if not self._post_check(x):
                  continue
              if cur_max['end'] <= x['start']:
                  parsed_date = self._parse_date(cur_max)
                  if parsed_date:
                      if self._settings[EXTRACT_FIRST_DATE_ONLY]:
                          return res
                      res.append(parsed_date)
                  cur_max = x
              else:
                  if len(x['value']) > len(cur_max['value']):
                      cur_max = x
                  elif len(x['value']) == len(cur_max['value']):
                      if x['order'] in ['SINGLE_YEAR']:
                          cur_max = x
                      elif len(x['order']) == len(cur_max['order']):
                          if len(x['groups']) < len(cur_max['groups']):
                              cur_max = x
                          elif len(x['groups']) == len(cur_max['groups']):
                              if sum(ele is not None for ele in x['groups']) < sum(ele is not None for ele in cur_max['groups']):
                                  cur_max = x
                              elif self._settings[PREFER_LANGUAGE_DATE_ORDER] and self._lan in language_date_order:
                                  if x['order'] == language_date_order[self._lan]:
                                      cur_max = x
                                  elif x['order'] == self._settings[PREFERRED_DATE_ORDER]:
                                      cur_max = x
                              elif x['order'] == self._settings[PREFERRED_DATE_ORDER]:
                                  cur_max = x
          parsed_date = self._parse_date(cur_max)
          if parsed_date:
              if self._settings[EXTRACT_FIRST_DATE_ONLY]:
                  return res
              res.append(parsed_date)
          return res